After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Xu Longdao looked distressed and deliberately slowed down, falling half a step behind Liu Zhi.

The other party comes from a prestigious family and is eloquent and persuasive.

He was not good with words, so he wanted Liu Zhi to tell him about some things that had happened outside.

Liu Zhi's steps were uneven as he frowned in deep thought, unaware of the ingenious idea that suddenly burst forth from his honest and straightforward colleague.

Passing through the flower hall and entering the third courtyard, there is a rather large open space in front of you—the small training ground that His Highness uses for martial arts practice.

Bonfires were lit on both sides, and the flames were roaring.

The two men wore official hats and blue official robes.

After passing through the training ground, which was thirty feet wide, we arrived at the lavishly decorated banquet hall.

Upon arriving, they saw the little girl in the melon-shaped hat, who had been crying for a while, sobbing as she recounted, "He, he, Master, that big idiot Li Xing, he's older than me... He's a few months younger than me..." The little girl sniffed sharply and said intermittently.

Nalan Ruo was taken aback.

Is she a few months younger than Tong Jia?

Nilong and the people of the Northern Dynasty were also stunned.

How is that possible?

The people from the Southern Dynasty looked around in bewilderment. Tong Jia was a few months younger than him. Could he be a scion brought by some noble family?

Twelve years old? Or eleven years old?

What incredible talent!

Is your surname Li?

The banquet tables of the Tang and Gui Princes' residences were placed after the three princes. Zhu Xianze frowned, thinking that Princess Tang was knowledgeable and experienced, and asked, "Does the princess know this Li Xing? And that Jia Wudi?"

Zhu Jiamu shook her head absentmindedly and rolled her eyes slightly. How did she know that?

call.

A night breeze blew by.

The beaded curtain flutters in the wind.

Upon hearing the little girl's words, Zhu Cuiwei, behind the curtain, couldn't help but furrow her brows.

Li Xing... Xing-ge'er?

A thought struck her: Why is this kid here too? Did the young doctor bring him in?

Long ago, she heard a young eunuch report that the young doctor, using the alias Jia Songling, had caused a huge disturbance in the courtyard... She was instantly startled.

Those invited to the banquet upon entering the courtyard were all capable officials selected by the Grand Tutor and the ministers of the Eastern Palace over the past year.

I had planned to wait until the game was settled before going over there to toast these officials and forge a bond of friendship between ruler and subject during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

After succeeding to the throne, he promoted officials one by one, laying a solid foundation for Sun Zhanshi's reform team.

The eunuch's explanation was vague; they had no idea how the young doctor had gotten into an argument with the officials.

The two agreed to gamble on chess, and the loser would have to kneel on the ground and kowtow three times.

Zhu Cuiwei narrowed her phoenix eyes and asked, "Which gentlemen did the young master kneel before?"

The young eunuch's expression froze for a moment, then he shook his head frantically after a breath, saying, "Your Highness, the young master didn't kneel, he didn't kowtow even once. It was them who were kneeling." Zhu Cuiwei's eyes widened slightly, and she breathed a small sigh of relief, feeling somewhat relieved.

There are many things I don't quite understand.

However, it was truly frustrating. I was planning to order someone to intervene to prevent the two sides from getting into a real fight and the young doctor from being ganged up on by the civil officials.

There have been incidents in Daliang where civil officials have fought each other in the imperial court, and such a situation cannot be allowed to continue.

But the young eunuch replied that the son-in-law hadn't actually been forced to kowtow to anyone; he had simply avoided it.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cuiwei felt relieved and thought to herself that the young doctor was quite sensible.

They then said that if the son-in-law lost, they should intervene and make them all disperse and sit there quietly to watch the show. The young eunuch obeyed and left.

She thought the accident would end quickly, but things took a turn for the worse than she expected.

After a long, long time, the young eunuch reported several times, each time saying that the young master had not lost a single game, and had even progressed to playing chess with ten people at the same time, and the scene was getting more and more chaotic.

However… the little eunuch hesitated, and after Zhu Cuiwei’s sharp eyes, he immediately lowered his head in fear and said that many adults had bruises or even red swelling on their foreheads.

Zhu Cuiwei immediately understood.

If that's the case, she thought it best to go over and have a drink with them later. These people have unsightly foreheads, which is undignified and even somewhat improper... It wouldn't be appropriate for her to go over there in person... She gritted her teeth inwardly.

Not long ago, the young eunuch reported an even more absurd thing to her.

When the son-in-law entered the second courtyard, the group of officials clamored for him to go on stage and fight the prodigy from the Northern Dynasty.

The Northern Dynasty prodigy also specifically requested that his son-in-law come up and fight against Shangguan Zhao, saying he wanted to see how good his son-in-law was... In other words, on the stage, it turned into a young doctor playing chess with Shangguan Zhao.

This made her feel extremely complicated, and she didn't know how to bring it up with the people in the room.

Before she could even come up with a reason, the people in the room were already discussing Tong Jia and Shangguan Zhao's clever move. This made it even harder for her to speak.

Thinking to himself that since everyone playing chess was from the Southern Dynasty, winning or losing didn't matter, and it wasn't a deliberate attempt to humiliate the Northern Dynasty, he ordered Shangguan Zhao and Tong Jia to play another round after this round to determine the winner.

Coming to her senses, Zhu Cuiwei looked at the little girl crying in the room with an extremely complex expression.

Li Xing, that brat… is he really that good at chess? He beat Tong Jia ten games in a row… She frowned, wondering how she hadn’t known about this… And… she looked at the chessboard again, at the final battle between the red and black pieces… Is the young doctor really that good too?

Shangguan Zhao's chess skills were far beyond what she and the Southern Dynasty officials had expected, and they could even vaguely sense that Shangguan Zhao was hiding his true abilities.

In just ten games, Shangguan Zhao clearly went all out, putting in his full strength, but even so, he only managed to play to a very close level with the young doctor, and could even be said to be slightly inferior to the young doctor.

Hmm... that really is... Zhu Cuiwei pursed her lips, lowered her eyes, and didn't know what to say... Hmm... I'll ask him when I get home.

After a moment's hesitation, Zhu Cuiwei smiled faintly and said:

"Miss Tongjia, you've had a hard day playing chess... Come, come to my side, I... will give you a gift."

……

……

Second courtyard.

The atmosphere in the room was initially one of righteous indignation, with everyone constantly denouncing Jia Wudi.

But as the two players on stage made their moves with lightning speed and displayed one brilliant strategy after another, the atmosphere in the arena gradually cooled down.

Then, everyone's eyes widened in shock, a chill ran down their spines, and they fell silent, finally realizing that all that time, none of them had managed to force Jia Wudi to reveal his true abilities!

Everyone glanced at Jia Wudi, then at Shangguan Zhao, whose methods were equally ruthless, and couldn't help but swallow hard.

After a while, at some point, someone shouted "Good move!" and the atmosphere in the room became lively again, but it was completely different from the atmosphere of condemnation just now.

With everyone's attention focused on the stage, few noticed that after the first round, a tall man in a black flying fish suit led a child in.

The child, holding up an ordinary chess set, arrogantly patted the prodigy on the shoulder and challenged him to a game.

The prodigy looked disdainful, lifted his robe, and went to the side with the child.

The two sat on the ground and began their little game of chess... Perhaps due to the vast difference in skill, they had even finished ten games before the two on the stage.

As the child prodigy in the melon-shaped hat put away the chess pieces, his eyes were red and he looked like he was about to cry.

The child, with a smirk, said discontentedly, "Hey! So what if you lost? Why are you making such a face? Like a girl! Are you waiting for me, the principal, to comfort you?"

Upon hearing this, the boy in the melon-shaped hat burst into tears, jumped up, and ran towards the third courtyard, crying as he went...

On the stage.

Ning Nan patted his face to sober up.

He moved his red horse to a higher position and said, "General."

The opposing veteran moved aside and dodged.

Ningnan bullet train.

His opponent saw through his move at a glance and then used his last remaining chariot to attack his horse, leaving Ning Nan with no choice but to move his horse...

This situation has been repeated time and again.

However, because Ningnan captured one of the opponent's advisors earlier, it seemed like he had captured a piece, but in fact, it gave the opponent's veteran general more room to maneuver.

Even with an extra horse, he could hardly defeat his opponent.

"Well," Ning Nan smiled helplessly, "it's a dead end."

"Then it's a draw," Ning Nan said.

Shangguan Zhao cupped his hands in greeting and smiled.